Departments

Conservatives claim Barack Obama is too awesome to be president, T.A. Frank's parody considers potential preemptive presidential pardons, and we ask which country prominent journalists would like to be ambassador to under a McCain administration.

The story of how the right convinced some centrist liberals to endorse the idea of an "entitlements crisis" shows how difficult -- and necessary -- it will be for the next president to resist conventional wisdom.

Columns

Liberal institutions that once imitated conservative ones are now far surpassing their role models. The quick-moving, imaginative progressive think tank now makes its conservative analogue look like a threadbare brand name from the 1970s.

The blog Stuff White People Like, became an Internet sensation but it's more than just a humor blog -- the site tells us something about the mostly white, affluent audience that has so enthusiastically embraced a mocking rundown of their culture.

Columns

Budget hawks are trying to convince the public that we face an unavoidable choice between cutting social programs and budgetary Armageddon. But in reality, our budgetary problems stem from our out-of-control health care system.

Much of America's economic elite continues to promote an absurdly simplistic theoretical case for the necessity of "free trade." But, as more thoughtful globalizers are starting to admit, the reality is much more complicated.

Departments

A bad Supreme Court decision overturning race-based integration programs in Louisville, KY, and Seattle, WA, has produced a positive result. A new initiative in Louisville does something even better for children -- it integrates them by class.

Forty years ago two good Democrats divided the Democratic Party. Supporters of each candidate lost perspective and the resulting tensions hurt the party. But this year, unlike 1968, Democrats have a chance at reconciliation.

Before Congress goes after bank misdeeds on Wall Street, let's stop the petty theft on Main Street -- predatory mortgages and usurious loans. Had we protected the poor and the weak, the problems of our mighty banks might not be so great.

Online Extras

Features

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain may protest that he hates war, but no American leader has promoted it more avidly. McCain is not only the most hawkish neocon on the horizon; he genuinely sees war as America's most ennobling enterprise.

For most of the 20th century, America manufactured things. For the past 30 years, though, it has chiefly manufactured debt. Wall Street, with the aid of both political parties, gravely damaged the economy.

Columns

The financial economy is a confidence game and nobody wants to be the Cassandra who triggers the crash. But we need to address the fact that the next president will face an economic crisis unlike any since 1933.

Obama's campaign shows how a democracy-minded reform movement and community organizing have transformed the Democratic Party. Like Reagan, Obama is as much a product of a movement as the creator of one.

In search of something beyond the New York art scene, Robert Smithson landed at Utah's Great Salt Lake, where he created Spiral Jetty amid abandoned oil derelicts. Now his deliberately noncommercial work is at risk of disruption by the return of oil drilling.

Departments

Faced with internal political pressures and the hard fact of Israel's strength, Hamas has moderated its political positions significantly. The moment may be ripe for pushing Hamas further toward the center.

To keep the world's tinder box from exploding even more violently, George W. Bush's successor is going to have to pursue a radically different Middle Eastern policy. Some policy pointers: Get out of Iraq. Work with (some) Islamists. Create the Palestinian state. Thereby, undercut al-Qaeda.